For Mount Saint Mary College’s Asha Mendez of Fishkill, N.Y., a graduate student on the Childhood and Special Education track, the most rewarding challenge of her academic career has been student teaching in local elementary schools.
Mendez, who will graduate this May, completed her first student teaching placement at Poughkeepsie’s Noxon Road Elementary School in Arlington Central School District earlier this year, where she was teaching second-grade. Her second placement, which she is finishing up this month, is in Fishkill’s Glenham Elementary School in the Beacon City School District, where she is teaching fifth-grade. Both times, Mendez worked with a mix of general and special education students.
These classroom experiences have been “invaluable” to her growth as a teacher: “I learned how to support students who demonstrate need in different areas, like academics and social-emotional development,” Mendez explained. “I was able to see first-hand the effects these last two years of COVID have had on our students and it was really helpful to see how more experienced teachers overcome these challenges. I learned the value of routine and I walked away from both placements with tools and strategies that I know will be helpful to me in my career as an educator.”
In addition to her student teaching experiences, Mendez credits the Mount’s rigorous Education program with helping to mold her into the successful educator she is today.
“I found myself using a lot of what I learned in my methods courses in my student teaching,” she said. “The research and theory learned in these courses have really laid a strong foundation for me as an educator.”
Helping her to flourish was Frances Spielhagen, Mount professor emerita of Education: “I would like to thank her for sharing her work and being a wonderful mentor,” said Mendez.
Mendez worked as Spielhagen’s teaching assistant from her first semester at the college in Fall 2019 through Spring 2021. In this role, Mendez helped to plan the annual Center for Adolescent Research and Development (CARD) conferences and assisted with Teach the Change, a program pioneered by Spielhagen to encourage students from minority populations to pursue jobs in the field of education.
She also thanked Jennifer Wutz and her mother, Priya Mendez, from the college’s Office of Student Teaching, “for taking care of all the student teachers each and every semester. I appreciate their support and encouragement in such an important time in our careers.”
The future is looking bright for Mendez, who has already lined up a long-term subbing position in the Wappingers Central School District for a teacher on maternity leave. After that, Mendez can’t wait to start teaching in a classroom of her own.
“It’s been my dream to be a teacher since I was 5 years old and I am excited to finally have that dream realized,” she explained. “My biggest goal is to make a difference in the lives of as many students as possible.”